Monday, September 11, 2017

I
remember where I was and exactly what I was doing when I first heard that a
commercial airliner had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Less than 20 minutes later, a second jetliner hit the South Tower. By the time
a third jet barreled into the Pentagon and a fourth went down in a remote field
in Pennsylvania, it was obvious that the United States was under attack and the
world as we knew it would never be the same.

Gone
are the days when we may walk our grandparents down the jet way and escort them
right to the door of an airplane to wave goodbye when they go home after
Thanksgiving. (We can’t even walk through airport security with our shoes still
on.) Gone are the days when the only things we had to worry about when we
traveled were weather delays or mechanical problems on the jet, coach or train
we are traveling on. Oh, no: that is our old (now largely untenable)
subconscious mental script. In the past 13 years, the bigger concern and
occasional reality is whether the person seated beside us is carrying a
concealed weapon such as a bomb or blade. Thirty years ago, hostages on a
hijacked plane or ship could usually rely on eventually being released to
survive their ordeal when the bad guy(s) were caught or left their human
collateral behind in their escape. Since September 11, 2001 most people seem to
know—believe?—that we may not escape such an attack with our lives.

Now,
let’s turn that mind-set around. As a species, humans are very good at
surviving, enduring and adapting to the physical and social environment in
which we live. While I lived in England during the 1990s, everyone knew better
than to ever leave bags, packages or luggage unattended anywhere, or else the
police confiscate and destroy (blow up) the bag in case it was a bomb. Precaution,
observation and adherence to the new security motto if you see something, say something have become our new
subconscious known in the United States, too. We do not take our freedom or
security so much for granted anymore, simply because we can’t afford to do so.
Our metaphoric antennae are ever on alert, ready to raise the alarm if
something doesn’t look, sound or seem right. By the time the passengers and
crew aboard United
Airlines Flight 93 realized their flight was doomed, they likely knew from
phone calls to loved ones that they were heading toward a similar fate as what
had already happened in New York City and Washington. Armed with the knowledge
that they would not survive the hijacking no matter where the flight ended,
they reportedly confronted and fought back against the terrorists. Their heroic
actions not only saved thousands more lives by crashing the plane into a
Pennsylvania field instead of the Capitol building but also created a new
subconscious known for the rest of us: it is okay to fight back. Indeed, since
we know and acutely remember that what happened thirteen years ago could happen
again, we are more ready to jump right into the fray and prevent a fellow
traveler from igniting explosives in his shoes or underwear. Even though we may
grumble about the inconvenience, we submit to the extra interview, x-ray and
pat-down at the security gates before boarding a plane or even entering a
landmark building.

For me, our
ability to endure even after those terrorist attacks proved that the capacity
of our subconscious mind is a major key to humanity’s ability to survive
extreme tragedy and bear almost unbearable loss. If not for the SCM’s ability
to translate, store and retrieve those danger
message units from the environment and anchor that perception to a
fight/flight response, countless more people would likely have perished on and
since September 11, 2001.

My thoughts and
prayers are with the victims, their families and friends, and the
first responders who sacrificed and lost so much sixteen years ago today.